Gavin Darby, CWW's chief executive since November, could make £1m in compensation and share sales if the deal goes through and he loses his job.

Vodafone's 38p-a-share offer for C&WW, which provides telecoms networks to 70pc of the FTSE 100 and public sector organisations like the National Health Service, represents a premium of 92pc to C&WW's closing price of 19.8p at the start of the offer period in February.

The board of the telecoms business decided to accept the cash offer ahead of the midday deadline which was extended from last Thursday by the Takeover Panel.

In a statement, John Barton, chairman of C&WW, said the Vodafone offer, which is subject to shareholder approval, would provide more stability for the company and its shareholders.

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However, C&WW shareholder Orbis, which owns just over 19pc of the company's shares and is its largest investor, said it is "concerned that the offer price does not appear to reflect the value inherent" in the company.

As a result, it won't back the board's acceptance of the offer.

"Although we believe the CWW management team has handled the bid process responsibly, we have declined to give an irrevocable undertaking or letter of intent to support the transaction," Orbis said.

Vodafone has acceptances from five of the other top six shareholders holding 18.6pc of CWW's equity but analysts feel Orbis could provide the basis for a strong blocking minority that could encourage a rival bidder.

Vodafone was the last remaining bidder for the company following the withdrawal of India’s Tata Communications last week.

Vodafone is reportedly planning to break up C&WW, which owns the biggest fibre network in the UK and more than 425,000km of undersea cables connecting around 150 countries. The company is expected to sell off CW&W’s undersea cables business.

It is believed one of Vodafone’s core interests in C&WW is its fibre optic network in the UK, which will help the telecoms giant cope with the explosion of internet traffic on mobile phones.

Vodafone is also attracted to C&WW’s core UK division because it serves companies. The FTSE 100 mobile operator has been looking to grow its corporate wing as the consumer phone market reaches saturation point.

Vittorio Colao, chief executive of Vodafone, said yesterday: "We are pleased to reach agreement with the Board of Cable & Wireless Worldwide, who unanimously recommend our offer. The acquisition of Cable & Wireless Worldwide creates a leading integrated player in the enterprise segment of the UK communications market and brings attractive cost savings to our UK and international operations."

The chief executive also admitted that there would be jobs lost among the 6,300 staff at the business, reports The Sun this morning.

Tata withdrew from the takeover battle last week, saying it decided not to make a formal offer because it was unable “to reach agreement with CW&W on an offer price”. Reports suggested Tata offered less than 25p a share for C&WW.

Sources close to the situation said Tata pulled out of the bid battle for C&WW because it was unable to secure debt financing for its offer. Reports suggested Tata offered less than 25p a share for C&WW.

Analysts said Vodafone was paying a "bargain price" for a business with 20,500 kilometres of fibre cable that would cost £5bn to build from scratch.

Tata could still trump the bid because it reserved the right to do so in its statement to the market last week.